The IOC said on Tuesday that it felt costs for the 2020 Tokyo Games looked "very high" and would work with organizers "to cut them, but that athletes must come first when considering how to rein in spending," according to Lies & Gallagher of REUTERS.
The comments "came at a meeting between Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike and IOC President Thomas Bach, who proposed forming a working group comprising Tokyo, the central government, 2020 organizers and the IOC to find ways to avoid wasteful spending." The costs are projected to hit 3T yen ($29B) -- some "four times the initial estimates." IOC VP John Coates:
"That's certainly a figure that seems very large to us." He added that he was confident those figures "could be reduced." Reforms known as "Agenda 2020," carried out under Bach with the aim of making the Olympics more sustainable, allow hosts "to use facilities in other cities or even countries if it makes financial and practical sense."
Koike said that she was "still reviewing the proposed venue changes and would make a decision by the end of the month, after which she suggested holding the first meeting of the four-party working group" (REUTERS, 10/18). KYODO reported Bach and Koike agreed Tuesday "to form a four-party working group to review expenditures for the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics." The group will consist of the IOC, the Tokyo Games organizing committee and the Tokyo metropolitan and central Japanese governments. The inaugural meeting of the group "will be held after Koike comes to a decision by the end of this month based on recommendations for venue changes made by her review panel on spending." Bach: "The IOC is ready today. It is up to the Tokyo metropolitan government then to tell us when they are ready to present a final paper to this four-partite commission so that then it can be discussed" (KYODO, 10/18).
